As a first stab at this, Richard Kilborn has been doing some work on
docu-soaps. You could begin with his work.

One starting piont would be:

Kilborn, Richard, and John Izod (1997) An introduction to television
documentary: confronting reality. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Some others you could begin with:

Bondebjerg, Ib (1996) 'Public discourse/private fascination: hybridization
in "true-life-story" genres'. Media, Culture and Society, 18: 27-45.

Collins, Michael (1998), Tears'r'us. Guardian, pp. 12-13.

Corner, John (1995) Television form and public address. London: Edward
Arnold.

Corner, John (1996) 'Editorial: changing forms of "actuality"'. Media,
Culture and Society, 18: 5-9.

Mapplebeck, Victoria (1997, October) 'The tabloid formula'. Dox: documentary
film magazine,  (13): 10-12.

Stratton, Jon, and Ien Ang (1994) 'Sylvania Waters and the spectacular
exploding family'. Screen, 35 (1): 1-21.

All the best,

P.
--------------------------------------------
(Dr) Peter Hughes  Department of Media Studies  La Trobe University
Bundoora VIC 3083
ph: +61 3 9479 3065 (w),  fax: +61 3 9479 3638 (w)
 www.latrobe.edu.au/media

Screening the past. An international, refereed electronic journal of visual
media and history:
       www.latrobe.edu.au/www/screeningthepast

----
To sign off Screen-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF Screen-L
in the message.  Problems?  Contact [log in to unmask]